Maiden crowns for Shreyaans, Swastika

Shreyaans Goyal and Swastika Ghosh emerged as sub-junior boys and girls champions respectively at the 11Even Sports national ranking (South Zone) table tennis championships in Vishakapatnam on Tuesday.

In the boys final, Delhi’s Shreyaans defeated Chinmaya Somaiya of PSPBA 4-2 and in the girls event, Maharashtra’s Swastika blanked out Delhi’s Vanshika Bhargava 4-0 for their respective maiden titles.

The cadet boys title went to Preyesh Suresh Raj while Kavyashree Baskar claimed the girls crown.

In an energetic all left-handers’s boys final, fortunes swung either way before the Delhi boy outsmarted his rival on the sixth match point to take home the winner’s purse.

But it was a cakewalk for Swastika who hardly made a wrong move despite Vanshika extending her in two games.

Earlier, top seed and Rajkot title winner Payas Jain went down to state mate Shreyaans in straight games after his semifinal win in the West Zone event.

In the other semi-final, Chinmaya, gunning for his third title this season, dropped just one game to defeat Deepit Patil of Maharashtra 4-1.

Swastika had to overcome a spirited Poymantee Baisya of West Bengal 4-2 unlike Vanshika Bhargava who had it easy against Kajol Ramjali of Andhra Pradesh to enter the final. Vanshika won 4-0.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu’s Nithyashree Mani put up yet another sterling show before bowing out in the quarter-finals for the second time in succession.

In the cadet events, it was a repeat of titles for the Tamil Nadu’s Preyesh Suresh Raj and Kavyashree Baskar.